Gary Rowett expected a reaction from his Millwall players after Sunday’s 2-0 defeat by West Brom and he got that in the 1-1 draw with Fulham on Wednesday evening at The Den.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson’s controversial goal cancelled out Aleksandar Mitrovic’s early opener to give the Lions, who also saw a Jed Wallace penalty fly over the bar in the first half, a point they deserved.

With hopes of a play-off spot fading, the Lions boss was looking for a performance from a side that you feel he’s moulding for a real top-six challenge next season.

“It was a much better performance,” Rowett said.

“It was a difficult game and I was a little worried as we had less recovery time than Fulham but it’s the Championship, you got to deal with it.

“We changed formation and if you play that formation you’ve got to have energy and play it with intensity, and I thought first half even though we started poorly which I’m disappointed with, it’s become a bit of a habit recently where we’re conceding soft goals, we recovered well.”

Off-side?

The recovery Rowett speaks of was controversial. From a corner Bodvarsson poked home from an off-side position, but after deliberating with his linesman Andrew Madley allowed the goal to stand after feeling the preceding touch came from a Fulham player.

“It’s a little controversial, you can’t tell who it’s come off,” Rowett conceded.

“It’s a difficult one for the officials, I’ve watched it three times, you can’t tell who its come off.

“I’m sure that Scott (Parker) will be disappointed that it wasn’t given, and I understand that, but at the same time how can they give it if they’re not sure.

“But it was a good performance over-all.

“First half, to press and disrupt as well as we did, to play with composure and get balls in behind was very encouraging.

“The challenge second half was to see if we could maintain it, and the issue is with Fulham is that they are very good at playing around you.

“Fulham had a lot more possession but I thought we had the better chances, I don’t think Bart (Bialkowski) was worked that hard at the other end

“They move with a lot of fluidity and freedom, technically they’re all very good and we probably had a 20 minute spell where we struggled a little bit to get out, but often happens at The Den, the crowd stayed with us, got behind us and we finished the game really strongly.

“So we are disappointed with a draw perhaps but certainly a much more positive performance.”

Missed Penalty

It may have been a case of Karma that Millwall missed a penalty soon after going ahead via Bodvarsson. That said it was a surprise to most, including Rowett, that the usually pinpoint Wallace blazed well over the bar from 12 yards after Mahlon Romeo was brought down by Joe Bryan.

“He wasn’t his usual accurate self, but that’s going to happen.

“he’s doing everything he can, one or two things didn’t quite come off for him tonight but he still tried them.”

READ: REPORT: Millwall 1 Fulham 1

READ: PLAYER RATINGS: Millwall 1 Fulham 1